69 Old Friends and New Enemies

Stanis tried to keep his expression cold but couldn't stop his lips from curling as he walked towards the Yora leaders.

Yes, when he had first sensed the scout watching him, he could have told the Jaguars to run even faster in order to catch the village off-guard. But for what reason? It wasn't like he wanted to completely eradicate the village or anything, there was no reason to do a surprise attack. In fact, it was preferred that they welcomed him with such a large force, after all, it was the perfect way to showcase his strength.

He could have run forward towards the Yora village leaders and told them that he and the Jaguars were coming in peace, but why would he do that? Their side was the stronger of the two, instead it should have been the Yora leaders coming to him if anything.

The real reason why he didn't though, past his pride, was because he wanted to show them how strong he was right off the bat, so that they wouldn't do anything stupid later on. He had no interest in hiding his strength, nor any in slowly allowing them to figure out his strength as time went on. No, the best way was to show them how weak they were compared to him right from the start.

All the warriors who had been struck down hadn't been critically injured. Stanis had only aimed at their legs, Sil had only used Wind's embrace, Caleb had only used a wooden sword and Orena had been fighting half-heartedly. This meant that the Jaguars with healing abilities were easily healing up the injured humans as they walked past.

The fighters had retreated quite a way back, only the Yora leaders standing in the front, although this was mainly because they knew they had no escape. This group consisted of 5 people, only two of which Stanis recognised. There was Alyona, good old Jayesh, some cold looking, aged Caucasian dude, an African warrior and finally an Asian guy giving Stanis the death stare.

Stanis smiled past this while moving to meet them, motioning the Jaguars to stop their advance as only Sil, Orena and Caleb followed him.

Now that they were no longer in the heat of the battle, most of the people from the village easily recognised Caleb, Orena and Sil. They had all been the top powerhouses in the village just a month ago. Their appearances had changed a lot but their base features were still there, such as Caleb's tattooed mammoth arms or Orena's dreadlocks and spear or Sil's snow-white hair. All of them looked haggard and beaten up, although this was clearly not the case as they had just proven otherwise.

What caught the most attention, however, was not what they knew but what they didn't know; who was the man that these 3 powerhouses were following.

Stanis was wearing tight trousers and nothing else, his body painted with scars of varying sizes. His messily cropped hair was thick with dirt and mud, in fact his whole body was dirty. He wore no armour and held no weapons, hell, he didn't even have a pair of shoes over his feet. And yet it was this man that led the 3 powerhouses: it wasn't a surprise that all the attention quickly shifted towards him.

The few who recognised him were far too shocked to speak, after all, not only should he be dead right now but he was also the opposite of what they remembered him being. It was almost like a monster had taken control of his body after his death…

"I heard there's a war going on" said Stanis, smiling ambiguously as he spoke. Alyona and Drak had managed to keep their cool but Stanis could sense that they were obviously on edge, as for Jayesh, the aged Indian man looked as if he had seen a ghost.

Alyona's brain whizzed to life, buzzing with noise as it went through countless scenarios in order to find the best way to respond to him.

"Yes. I assume you are Stanis, no?" she said eventually after a slight pause.

Stanis made no show of response as he blankly stared at her.

"Ha-ha, we haven't met before. I'm Alyona." She stuck out her hand.

Stanis shook her hand before standing back still, half amused by how worried they were.

"I'm assuming b-by. Excuse me" she cleared her throat, "I'm assuming by the fact that you got the message that you are part of the Village." She didn't wait for a response this time as she carried on. "We are in the heat of a war now against a detestable enemy, I'm hoping you're here to, mm, help us." She carefully worded the last part, not wanting to seem as if she was underplaying his strength in any way.

"Not really" replied Stanis, "But these guys are" pointing to the 3 behind him.

Alyona's eyes wandered as he spoke, finding it hard to focus on Stanis as a white Panther double the height of a tall Human wordlessly walked over. Stanis noted this and fluidly turned around.

"Serb, can you take all the Jaguars to that Forest" said he while pointing to the Western Forest, past the stream.

"Sure" rumbled Serb, the rumble turning into thunder as he roared, the chattering Jaguars instantly silencing. The humans on the other side more than blanched at this, firmly understanding that these Jaguars were no weaker than the humans they had come with.

"I'll come over once I'm done here" said Stanis, Serb nodding before leaving with the army of Jaguars.

Now that the imminent Reapers were gone, the humans should have felt breath back in their lungs. It was instead the opposite as they fearfully watched the Jaguars leave, further intimidated by Stanis and his seemingly mutual alliance with these monsters.

"Should we now go inside?" motioned Stanis.

Alyona immediately responded by agreeing with him, Drak screaming that the battle had been just a false alarm. Of course, not a single person believed this after seeing what had happened with their own eyes, but were happy either way as it seemed like Stanis and co. were here to talk, not destroy.

It was as Stanis was following the village leaders to the village hall that he noticed the guilt in Jayesh's eyes. Alyona might not have known who he was but he knew who she had been, the sole leader of the village before it had merged with Riverbeat. The fact that Jayesh was standing with her in this little group meant that he had clearly done well for himself while Stanis had been away. It was knowing this fact and seeing the opposite, Jayesh downtrodden and spiritless, that Stanis felt a bit of his inward, hidden spite towards him disappear.

It was clear by Jayesh's actions that he felt guilty for what he had done to Stanis, especially so after being reminded by the living thing appearing before him. Knowing that Jayesh and the others must have had a good reason for leaving him there didn't lessen his feelings of being betrayed, but seeing them apologetic and guilty for the actions did.

Stanis turned his sight away from Jayesh and looked around the village. It was much larger than what he remembered it being a month ago. It also looked grand and full of life, well, for the most part. He was sure that's what it was like that at least before he and the Jaguars had made their appearance. It was clear that the Yora village had come by their own luck as well, as this kind of growth meant higher security.

Stanis and the others soon walked into the village hall, immediately being given refreshments as they walked in. Sil, Caleb and Orena were at least used to these motions as they had been staying in the village before Stanis had come, but to Stanis, these actions were foreign as it felt like a lifetime since he had last received such hospitality from other humans.

Opposite to Stanis sat the six from before, Caleb, Orena and Sil sitting beside him.

"So what's this about fighting another village?" asked Stanis, not caring about pleasantries as he went on the meaty subject.

"Umm, we discovered a village east of here, well past the forest, a few weeks ago. Initially we had planned good relations, after all, we are all Humans fighting against this world."

Stanis nodded at this, giving Alyona a bit more confidence as she had been indirectly questioning his stance.

"But when we sent a few scouts to check it out in greater depth, we discovered they were everything but Human." Alyona said while gritting her teeth.

"Why so?" asked Caleb, interested by the calculating Alyona's change of character.

"Best said, they have gone into a feudal system there" said Drak, suddenly piping up and at the same time becoming 10 years older in Stanis's head as he heard the exhaustion in the middle-aged man's voice.

"Yeah" followed Alyona, "There, the strong have everything and the weak have nothing. It's called Haven as that's exactly what it is for the powerful. Now I won't act like that doesn't happen here either, after all, that is just the natural order of this world, but I emphasise the fact that over there, the weak have nothing. No rights whatsoever."

She paused, Stanis now piqued by this other village.

"****, wanton murder and injustice are just commonplace there. If you are a woman, you are nothing but a sex slave. If you are a man, you are nothing but livestock. They completely go against a union of humans against this new world, instead, they have merged with the new world and now play around with the rest of us."

"That's not the worst of it" spoke up Jayesh. Stanis could sense a myriad of emotions in his voice: frustration, guilt, exhaustion, anger. "The worst is the fact that their lifestyle is alluring now. It is seen as a gamble by most, after all, if you do turn out to have more strength than others, even a bit, then you enjoy the lifestyle of a King."

"Yes" carried on Alyona, "We have around 2000 people, more than half of them currently fighting against Haven. As for Haven though, they have around 10 000…"